A smorgasbord of short film treats is about to descend on Cape Town in hues of magenta.
You might have seen the pink posters go up around the city, signalling the start of the sixth shnit International Shortfilmfestival in Cape Town.
It takes place from Wednesday to next Sunday.
The festival showcases the best of both international and local short films, presented in themed blocks such as Made in SA, Kaapse Bobotie and the erotica favourite Peeping Shnit.
In line with festival trends, shnit has a judged awards system and public voting.
The festival has grown over the years and this year will have a presence at the Labia, Cinemuse in Stellenbosch with opening and closing parties at the Castle of Good Hope and the Cape Town Club respectively.
Festival organiser Sean Drummond says, “We had no idea that shnit would grow like this. It’s kept growing and the best answer to that is because the response from film-makers has been mindblowing. The entries are getting better. It’s like watching an industry in a growth cycle and hearing more contemporary voices.”
This year they received more than 100 local entries.
The festival features local and international competition as shnit occurs simultaneously in eight cities.
The Made in SA category is judged by a panel that includes Necktie Youth creator Sibs Shongwe-La Mer and South African actor Sharlto Copley.
“Made in SA is there to reward South African film-makers. It aims to highlight the cream of the crop.”
The local leg of shnit began a localised awards programme four years ago and now all shnit locations around the world feature one.
The Parcel is a South African film in the international competition. It is an eerie little short where we see a man fetch a parcel in a spooky post office.
He finds a 3D View Master with a reel of photos of him.
Director Hayden Phipps says the film was shot over four days last year.
The film was shot in the spooky corridors of the Cape Town Central Post Office in Grand Central.
“I loved the starkness and graphic nature of the Cape Town Central Post Office. It sets the tone of things to come. The film explores the supernatural, an abstract reality that is beyond what we perceive as normal. A twist in the tale that suddenly transports us into another world,” says Phipps.
There are many other great films in the Made in SA section.
Among those in the Cape Flats thriller Nommer 37 made by Gambit Films.
Gambit is the team which will bring us the first Afrikaans soap opera shot in Cape Town, Suidooster, which is expected on kykNET & Kie in November.
Based on Alfred Hitchcock’s Rear Window, the film is an intense picture of how a couple use a pair of binoculars and a phone to extort money to pay a debt.
It stars Irshaad Ally of Four Corners fame, as a paralysed man with debts to a gang boss.
Gambit’s Travis Taute says: “We knew we wanted to use (Rear Window) as a calling card for a feature film and designed a story structure that would reflect the thrilling aspects a feature length film of the same design and genre.
“We’re huge fans of the crime/thriller genre, and found an opportunity to tell a unique story, set within the Cape Flats which, we believe has been vastly unexplored in cinema thus far.”
From UCT comes the film Umva, a pictorial exploration of womanhood and language.
It was directed UCT student Jessie Zinn.
“Umva was made as an experimental short film assignment last semester for the University of Cape Town’s Screen Production programme. Umva is an experimental documentary that revolves around post-democratic disillusionment in South Africa from the perspective of three young South Africans who, despite being ‘born-frees’, do not feel free at all,” says Zinn.
From further afield (Johannesburg) comes a gem: The Call.
Directed by Zamo Mkhwanazi, it casts Fana Mokoena as a conflicted taxi driver.
In the film he picks up an expensive smartphone in his taxi after a nurse leaves it behind.
He is left with the choice of selling it to repair a broken window, or pick up a call from the phone and return it.
Mkhwanazi says, “I cast Fana because for a role where there is no dialogue, I needed the best possible actor.
“He struggles chiefly with communication. This is a man who spends his day in constant physical proximity with strangers and only finds solace and privacy in his silence.”
l Tickets for shnit are at www.shnit.org or Webtickets.
All shows are 90-minute blocks of six to 10 films and carry an age restriction of 16.
Tickets for the opening night at the Castle are R100, R120 for the closing night at the Cape Town Club and R45 for shows at the Labia and Cinemuse. All access festival passes are R280.
Weekend Argus